Is Srikkanth and Co. responsible for India's no-show?

“One’s past is responsible for his present”. It is not a chemical formula which requires a scientist to scratch his head like a monkey. It is a pretty logical statement and makes complete sense. People have come up with various emotional and philosophical reasons for India’s position in cricket’s longer format. The condition isn’t too bright in the shorter formats either. Is India’s past hurting India?

When I say past, I am directing my fingers particularly at India’s earlier selection panel, headed by Mr. Krishnamachari Srikkanth. In a country like India, where the selectors live their lives at the tip of the sword, it seems astonishing that Srikkanth and Co. escaped this trial from the fans and the media personnel.

Few days back I overheard Mr. Srikkanth on T.V, lending his advice for the new selection panel. He seemed to have come out all suited up to take the new selection panel head on regarding India’s failure in the home series against England. He wanted them to discuss about Sachin Tendulkar‘s future with the man himself. Knock knock Mr. Srikkanth, wasn’t that supposed to be your job? It’s not like he turned 36 yesterday. Or had you foreseen Sachin’s future?

It might be true that these selectors do not enjoy as much freedom as some of their counterparts (It was astonishing how Mr. N Srinivasan used his power to overrule the selection panel’s decision to free Dhoni of his captaincy duties). But surely there was a lot more they could have taken care of. Today, we are in a position that we can’t look past Dhoni. The two seniors in the side, Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag, are woefully out of form. Virat Kohli might be too young despite having been the team’s knight in shining armour amid all the chaos. Surely the selectors could have been a bit more decisive in their selections.

Ask those selectors to analyse their performance and they would probably point at the World cup triumph and the team’s rise to the top in the pinnacle format of the game. But a professional’s real character comes out when the tide is flowing against you. The going did get tough but the selectors weren’t tough enough to get going.

The selectors were, at best, safe. They played the same team and the same players despite continuous failures. The effects can be seen today. The openers were untouchable. Their place in the line-up was taken for granted. They were so used to their place in the starting line-up that if the team management dropped them for one odd game, they would launch a rocket at the captain in the next press conference. There was a sense of arrogance among some of the players that it seemed like they were more important than the team itself. Where were you then Mr Krisnamachari Srikkanth?